Saints vs. Seahawks: Keys To the Game For the Seattle Seahawks

Not many people are giving the Seattle Seahawks much of a chance against the defending champion New Orleans Saints on Saturday. Despite the fact they’re the home team, Pete Carroll’s team find themselves as 10-point underdogs, with no expectations whatsoever for a deep playoff run.

But there’s always hope. And as is always the case, there are a couple keys to the game for the Seahawks.

As our good friends at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer point out, the fact that Carroll has tabbed Matt Hasselbeck as his starting quarterback after keeping him out against the St. Louis Rams could go either way. Yes, Hasselbeck is experienced, and he did torch the Saints for 366 yards in their first meeting. But that game was the exception to Hasselbeck’s season, not the rule.

No matter how much postseason experience Hasselbeck has, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Carroll pulled him for Charlie Whitehurst at the first sign of trouble.

The good news for the Seahawks is that they won’t have to deal with Chris Ivory this time around. He’s out for the rest of the season with a foot injury, and the Seahawks will be glad they won’t have to deal with him again. In their first meeting, he tore up the Seahawks defense for 99 yards on a season-high 23 carries.

In fact, the Saints ground game could be largely nonexistent in this game, as Pierre Thomas is also out for the season and Reggie Bush and Julius Jones (former Seahawk) may not be up to the task of taking on too many carries.

As such, the Seahawks could have a pretty easy time limiting the Saints offense if they can get after Drew Brees, which is hard to do. He’s been sacked only 25 times all season, and the Seahawks didn’t get to him once in their first meeting, in which Brees threw for nearly 400 yards.

Once again, thanks to the folks at the Seattle P-I for the knowledge.

For more on the NFL playoffs, check out our Top 10 Questions To Consider Ahead Of This Weekend.